Other funds went to building or upgrading ethanol and compressed natural gas stations, various biofuel start-ups, transit programs, and more.

Diarmuid O'Connell, Director of Corporate Development at Tesla Motors, said in a statement, "This sizeable grant offered jointly by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the California Energy Commission is a significant vote of confidence for Tesla Motors and acknowledges the pioneering work Tesla Motors is doing in the development of zero-emissions electric vehicles and charging station technology."

When CARB asked for proposals earlier this year, they said that, "Electric fuel vehicles have the largest potential to reduce climate change emissions and petroleum dependency relative to any other alternative fuel vehicle under consideration".

Tesla says the charging station technology it has developed "could be used to power up electric vehicles throughout the state of California". If the company's plan to sell pure-electric vehicles across the country in the next few years takes off as expected, this could just be the start of very big things to come and would once and for all put the idea of "limited range" in an electric vehicle into the history books. :: Tesla, CARB, Auto Blog Green